Saturn’s rings to disappear as NASA warns ice being sucked into planet by gravity at ‘fastest possible speed’

NASA research reveals Saturn is losing its rings at “worst-case-scenario” rate.Source:Supplied

NASA has warned that Saturn is losing its rings at the worst possible rate — and that they’ll eventually disappear completely.

The rings — which are mostly made of water ice — are being sucked into the planet by gravity, new research reveals.

Saturn is the second-largest planet in our Solar System, and is iconic due to the ring system of ice particles that encircle it.

But these ring systems are now breaking away at the “maximum rate”, according to NASA.

This is based on observations from the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes, which reveal a staggering decline in the rings.

It turns out that Saturn’s magnetic field is pulling the rings in as a dusty rain of ice particles.

And now scientists are warning that the rings could disappear within just 100 million years — a very short time in space history.

“We estimate that this ‘ring rain’ drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn’s rings in half an hour,” said James O’Donoghue, of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre.

“From this alone, the entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years.

“But to add to this, the Cassini spacecraft measured ring material detected falling into Saturn’s equator, and the rings have less than 100 million years to live.

“This is relatively short, compared to Saturn’s age of over 4 billion years.”

One of the big mysteries around Saturn is whether the rings formed with the planet, or if they came later.

New research suggests the latter is correct, indicating that they’re unlikely to be older than 100 million years.

That’s because it would take that long for the inner C-Ring to become what it is today, when compared to the denser outer B-ring.

That means Saturn’s rings are already halfway to their demise.

It won’t be long (in relative terms) until the rings are completely gone, NASA says.Source:Supplied

“We are lucky to be around to see Saturn’s ring system, which appears to be in the middle of its lifetime,” O’Donoghue explained.

“However, if rings are temporary, perhaps we just missed out on seeing giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which have only thin ringlets today.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.